


tender flames, open hearts

by wylanvansunshines



Series: the universe is waiting for us (so what are we waiting for?) [1]
Category: Nowhere Boys (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Denial of Feelings, F/M, Fluff, Swearing, anyway heath is in love with nicco and i hope it shows, basically i just love these two a lot, first fic so I'm sorry if it sucks, literally idk what canon is, luke/ben are slightly hinted at but they are barely mentioned so, minor characters show up but i decided not to bother with their tags, nicco is in deniallll, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29019987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wylanvansunshines/pseuds/wylanvansunshines
Summary: “Why did you come here?”He runs a hand through his hair, his nervous habits beginning to show. It makes Nicco frown;why is he nervous?“Feel like sneaking out again?”(And who is she to say no? A lioness of a girl, a victorious girl, risking it all for a boy with a smile that hides the sun.)five times nicco says she doesn't like heath, and one time she does.or, the road to love is paved with denial and pining.
Relationships: Heath Buckland/Niccolina "Nicco" Pandelis, Niccolina "Nicco" Pandelis & Heath Buckland, Niccolina "Nicco" Pandelis & Jesse Banda, Niccolina "Nicco" Pandelis/Heath Buckland
Series: the universe is waiting for us (so what are we waiting for?) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2128953
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	tender flames, open hearts

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!!! warning: this is my first fic so please don't yell at me :)) 
> 
> i think this is the first work or at least one of the first works on ao3 to include the second-gen nowhere gang. i thought i should remedy the criminally lacking amount of fics these kids had, so here i am, writing for a show that people hopefully remember (even though it only ended in 2018). also, canon is only very loosely played with and the timeline is probably fucked but it's fine!!!!
> 
> im open for requests or prompts (specifically for: nowhere boys, marauders era, the grishaverse, irondad, teen wolf/scisaac/thiam)!!! comment or send me anything, and ill probably write it!!
> 
> anyway, enjoy! -scar

**I.**

It’s lunch and Nicco is irritated. 

Peta is staring at her, smirking and acting like she knows everything--which, of course, she doesn’t--and Nicco is sputtering, her disbelief rocking her nerves. The sun is beating down on them, its golden rays offering no mercy, and Nicco despises how the warmth immediately reminds her of a certain brunet boy.

“You’re delusional,” Nicco deadpans after she’s finished stammering. Peta merely raises an eyebrow in response.

“Sure, Pandellis. But I’ve seen the way you’ve been running off with him every day and avoiding me,” she points out, and Nicco grimaces. “You may not be dating, but you definitely _like_ him.”

Nicco huffs in disagreement and grumpily places her head in her palm. As much as she hates to admit it, there is some truth to her teammate’s allegations. She had been avoiding her and hanging around with Heath, but she had her reasons! Nicco avoided Peta because if she didn’t, Peta would ask her questions that she couldn’t give truthful answers to, and Nicco preferred to not lie when she didn’t absolutely have to. The Heath thing was only partly true, anyway, because it wasn’t just him Nicco had started to hang out with all the time. Luke and Ben had been newer friendships and she had made up with Jesse.

So, Nicco decides that Peta is only right on a surface level.

Her friend is still staring at her, waiting for a confession Nicco would never unveil.

“I do _not_ like him!” She raises her voice, defiant until her final breath. But Nicco’s never been particularly skilled at restraining her louder emotions, so a few neighbouring students turn to look over at the frustrated girl. They snicker until both Peta and Nicco flip them off. They turn away after that.

Peta’s smirk has dimmed into a smile as she shakes her head with a laugh. “Whatever you say, dude. Just know I’ll be here to tell you _I told you so_ when you start smooching him.” The girl makes obscene gestures as she finishes her words and Nicco hurries to swat her hands down.

“Mature, Peta, real fucking mature.” But the girl in question just hangs her head back and then grins at her, amusement creasing her eyes. She stands up from the table they’re sitting at and bids her goodbye, saying something about meeting up with their soccer coach. Nicco barely hears her, too suddenly distracted by the group text Luke’s sent. _Meet Ben and me in the secret room ASAP_ , it reads. Nicco sighs and rolls her shoulders. They never could catch a break, could they? As she jogs to their dubbed ‘magic room’, she runs into Jesse and Heath. She avoids the latter’s eyes. Not that it matters, because he takes the first chance he gets to catch and keep her gaze.

“You seem out of breath,” Heath observes with a faux-innocent smirk plastered on his face. Nicco’s eyes narrow automatically. “Puffed from all that yelling you did with Peta?”

This stops the girl in her tracks. Jesse looks curiously between the two.

“Shut up,” she growls. Heath returns her displeasure with a shit-eating grin.

“I have no idea what’s going on between you two, but please keep it PG thirteen for my sake,” the Banda boy interjects, a teasing lilt to his voice. Nicco snaps her eyes to her newly reclaimed best friend and glowers fiercely. But Jesse has always been immune to her death glares.

“I hate you both,” she proclaims and hopes that’s the end of it.

(For the moment, it is. But later, Heath would tease her some more and she would tease him back, and she would stay up at night wondering when it all became so familiar.)

**II.**

He’s covered in dirt when he appears in front of her. Nicco, despite the constant want to always punch him in the mouth, starts laughing. Dried mud speckles his cheeks, nearly hiding his cherry-red flush. Nicco notices it though because she’s always noticing the things he doesn’t want her to.

“Shut up,” he grumbles, muttering foul words under his breath. It’s a different character for him to play, or at least around the Pandelis girl, as it’s usually her who curses at him and him who riles her up.

Nicco continues to laugh, her eyes dancing with mirth. Heath’s own narrow at her spiteful song, walking resolutely past her and not bothering to see if she’s following (he knows she will if only to poke at him some more).

“I like this new look of yours, Buckland, very Jungle-esque,” she cackles, her hip bumping his. “Much better than your usual one.”

That makes his spirits lift slightly, already picturing her face when he says, “Are you saying I look good?”

He’s right, of course, because the second the words leave his mouth Nicco’s glee has transformed into a startled frenzy of emotions.

“What--no, that is not what I meant--”

“I know, Pandelis, just messing with you,” he says with a grin, his previous embarrassment wearing off. “Especially since I already know you think I’m attractive when I’m not covered in mud.”

He’s a daring boy, greedy in the sense that he wants to keep her talking and making her cheeks bloom pink. They don’t really know each other, not like Jesse knew Nicco or Nicco knew soccer. Still, Heath bargains that he’s the only one who can get her as irritated and flustered as she is in this moment. He may not be typically smart (oh how he hates how important that is to some people), but Heath prides himself on being resourceful; if he can’t do something one way, he’ll find another. 

And if telling Nicco to shut up doesn’t halt her laughter, he’ll find another way to lessen his embarrassment. Making her nervous seemed to do the trick.

She shoves him hard enough to break him out of his thoughts. Heath laughs as he stumbles, satisfied in the way he had gotten on her nerves.

“I hate you.”

“You don’t need to like someone to find them pretty, Niccolina,” he teases some more, toeing the lines of selfishness, because he, for some reason he would prefer not to discover just yet, wants to keep her next to him. Wants to hear her laugh some more so he never forgets its melody.

Nicco says, “You’re the worst.” 

Then there’s a lull in the conversation, the two teens traipsing through the greenery. They stay close enough to whisper to one another, but Nicco makes sure their hands never brush (he wonders if it’s because it’s him or because it’s a Nicco thing). But he knows neither of them could keep quiet for long (Nicco with her seemingly never-ending supply of adrenaline, and Heath with his limitless impulsivity).

“Why _are_ you covered in mud?” It’s Nicco who breaks first, her words coming out tinged with left-over amusement. She’s enjoying not being on the receiving end of taunts, he can tell.

He glares at her out of the corner of his eye, her smile appearing in full force at the sight. Sighing, he tries in vain to wipe off the dirt caking his face. “I fell into a hole.”

Nicco, unsurprisingly, bursts into hysterics once more. 

“Y-you what?!” She manages to gasp out. Heath huffs.

“You heard me.”

“Oh, I know. I just want to hear you say it again.”

Heath doesn’t know what to do other than ignore her, but he’s never been any good at keeping his attention away from Nicco, not since he met her properly. A beacon of light, a roar of thunder, Nicco Pandelis could not be ignored.

“Whatever,” Heath begins, turning to walk backwards. Nicco raises an eyebrow at him. She knows his next words will be accompanied with the intent to mock her, she can feel it. “Not all of us can be world-class soccer players, Nicco-”

But his ribbing is cut off as he stumbles yet again, his arms flailing for something to hold on to. They find Nicco as she, with the same reflexes he had teased her about, grabbed ahold of him before he could go sprawling. Heath doesn’t breathe for a moment, his sense too uber-focused on the way Nicco is still holding him.

“Clumsy,” she whispers with a smile, her stare fixed onto his. Her fingers are cool to the bone from where they’re splayed across his wrist and upper arm. Heath swallows nervously.

“As I said, not all of us can be pro soccer players,” the boy murmurs, afraid that if he speaks any louder something would break. Nicco stares at him some more, then to where her hands are still grasping him, her brace feeling stronger than the gravity pulling him down. Abruptly, she lets go, but not so suddenly that Heath falls back, thankfully.

The teen clears her throat and steps away from him. “Come on, the others are probably waiting. And you still have dirt on your cheek.”

With that, she begins walking again, and Heath is forcefully reminded of why they were in the forest in the first place. Something to do with magic and a foe desiring to end the world, blah blah blah. It’s not that threat that makes Heath stand completely still. It’s the phantom feeling of Nicco being so close, the metal of her rings sending shocks through his bones.

He blinks and realises Nicco is calling for him. He runs after her, taking a natural spot beside her and listens to her ramblings. The moment stays unsaid, but not forgotten.

(It acts as a balm for when Heath’s eyes get glazed with anger and shame. It comes as a familiarity to Nicco when she’s stuck in places she doesn’t know, and the only things she has to rely on are her friends and Heath’s eternal warmth.)

**III.**

The next time someone comments on her apparent affections for the Buckland boy, it’s, embarrassingly enough, her family.

They had all sat down for dinner, the absence of her and Kayla’s father glaringly obvious at the table, but Nicco simply ignored it as she always did. Besides, she had far more important things to worry about, things like magic and _saving the world_ type adventures. The teen smiled at her mother as she spoke about something that Nicco, in all her teenage cliches, could care less about, but still listened to for her mother’s sake. Nicco absentmindedly chatted about her classes and whatever had been asked of her, but for most of the ordeal, she kept her head down, mind abuzz with stories about magic.

The earth element had hoped that her quietness at dinner would allow her an early leave so she could contact her friends to see if anything other-worldly had happened, but it seemed her mother had caught on to her daughter’s plans.

“Niccolina, how’s that boy doing?” Her mother asks, an inquisitive tune in her voice. Nicco pauses from where she’s shovelling pasta into her mouth, wide eyes latching onto the woman’s own. Anna Pandelis frowns at her daughter’s lack of table manners but merely raises an eyebrow at her in contempt. Nicco swallows quickly beneath her mother’s stare.

“What boy?” Nicco asks though she has a sneaking suspicion on who. It couldn’t have been Jesse, as her mother knew him well, and the woman had never met Ben or Luke. Still, Nicco didn’t falter in her confusion.

Kayla rolls her eyes. “She means Heath, your _boyfriend_. Although, he could do so much better--”

The last comment distracts Nicco well enough from the insinuation of _Heath Buckland being her boyfriend_ that the older girl executes a well-aimed kick at the younger one, effectively causing her to yelp and not finish her sentence. Then, Nicco remembers what else Kayla had said.

“Wh--He’s not-- _He’s not my boyfriend!_ ” Nicco clumsily defends, her mind in overdrive at the accusation. Yiayia merely snorts at her.

Her mother looks at her calmly and Nicco hates it. “I never said that, but…” She trails off and leaves Nicco to fill in the gaps. Nicco doesn’t.

“ _But?_ ”

“Well, you have been spending a lot of time with him, and Kayla’s mentioned--”

“Woah, woah, woah. _First of all_ , you’re getting your information about my supposed love life out of my little sister? Right, because she’s _so_ trustworthy. Second, I hang out with guys all the time! Doesn’t mean I like them. And I definitely don’t like Heath,” Nicco rants, her hands flying up as she speaks. Anna shrugs in defence.

“I believe you, Niccolina. But, he is a very charming boy--!” The older woman says with a smile, trying to placate her daughter’s rising frustration.

“Handsome, too!” Yiayia interjects, Anna pointing her fork at her in agreement. Kayla nods with a smile, a dreamy look washing over her eyes.

Nicco gapes with shock.

“--and he seems to like you--!” Her mother tries to say, but Nicco has heard enough. 

She is not going to let her seemingly batshit crazy family set her up with (or the opposite, in her sister’s case, which Nicco would have helped her with if it wasn’t for it being because Kayla believed Heath deserved better than Nicco) _Heath Buckland_ of all people. The boy who put chickens in their principle’s office, the boy who seems to have a talent for finding every one of her buttons and pressing them like a child in an elevator. 

The boy who Nicco is strictly friends with, the boy who wants Brooklyn Wansbrough, _not her_. 

“Okay, this has gotten way too weird for me,” Nicco finally grounds out, pushing her chair back from the dinner table and standing up. “Can I be excused?”

Her mother regards her with amusement and something Nicco can’t place. It makes her squirm. “Yes, sweetheart. We’re sorry for intruding.”

Nicco nods stiffly and then races out of there as fast as she can without slipping on the floorboards. 

Of course, she doesn’t like him, or at least, not romantically. But when she thinks about it, really thinks about it, Nicco realises that he’s her friend. Someone who she has come to rely on, and somehow makes her smile even when she tries her damnedest not to.

But she isn’t going to tell anyone that.

Her bedroom door closes behind her as the teen makes her way to her window, opening it and leaning into the becoming night. The distant silver crescent hung in the sky peers down at her, its glow cascading over Nicco like a waterfall of sterling. Cool air racks her frame, inspiring restrained shivers and a bolt of shock to sting her spine. For a moment, her worries and insecurities are suspended like the moon, close enough that she can see them, but far enough that she would never be able to reach them (until morning came, of course). 

Nicco’s moment of serendipity is fractured by the sounds of stumbling beneath her. Her eyebrows furrowing, she cautiously peers down out of her window. What she sees makes her roll her eyes, practically hearing her mother’s dubious words and her yiayia’s uncontained glee. Kayla’s jealousy bounces around her head like a pinball machine.

The cause for her discontentment comes in the form of a teenage boy climbing her ladder. Dutifully, with annoyance coursing through her, Nicco steps aside to let him in, making sure her door is closed and no one is about to barge in. Heath grins a saccharine smile as he tumbles in through her window, his landing none too quiet. Nicco grimaces and hopes her family hasn’t heard.

He really isn’t helping her case.

The boy spies her annoyed expression as he dusts himself off. “Well, don’t you look happy? Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for, given I just climbed your _death-defying_ ladder to see you.”

Nicco feels her heartbeat jump and wants to punch the organ because of it.

“A little _warning_ would have been nice,” she hisses, sitting down on her bed with Heath naturally making himself comfortable on the window sill. He doesn’t stop smiling at her.

“Well, normally Nicco, when people text and call you, like, a hundred times, you answer. Not my fault you’re such a _grandma_ and don’t know how to use your phone,” he teases, making Nicco huff and look over at her phone, which to her annoyance, is flooded with his contact name. She hates him, she really does. She hates the way he smiles, hates the way he talks and the fact that he calls, hates the way she knows she doesn’t hate him (not even a little bit, not even at all).

“Why did you come here?”

He runs a hand through his hair, his nervous habits beginning to show. It makes Nicco frown; _why is he nervous?_

“Feel like sneaking out again?”

(And who is she to say no? A lioness of a girl, a victorious girl, risking it all for a boy with a smile that hides the sun.)

**IV.**

Nicco wakes to the morning sun kissing her face. She blinks slowly, the peach bruising of the sky reflecting in her irises. For a moment, she simply lies there, breathing and human. As she mindlessly listens to her family shuffle around downstairs, her mother berating her sister and her yiayia offering nothing helpful, the world feels impossibly soft. Nicco lets out a breath and smiles. Her heart is warm and beating and light; the heaviness from their recent magical escapades has lifted its toll, and Nicco finds now that it doesn’t hurt to breathe.

With her body coaxing her back to sleep, Nicco is powerless to refuse.

She wakes up once more, dazed and well-rested for the first time in what feels like forever. It’s a Saturday, or maybe a Sunday; Nicco isn’t quite sure. Her home is quiet and she’s alone in the silence. For once, she isn’t itching to get out and conquer something or run the roads of the world; for once, she’s content to take a break from the universe and its demands. She goes for a walk and learns to admire the earth instead of commanding it, for once. She lies on the floor of her kitchen with some overplayed song echoing off the walls. Nicco feels perfectly gratified, but something is missing.

What she does next she blames on muscle memory.

Heath picks up the phone after two rings, sounding anticipatory and out of breath. Nicco dimly wonders why, before realising it probably isn’t important.

“ _Nicco?_ ” He asks, as though her name hadn’t flashed on his phone screen. The girl nods before remembering that he can’t see her. 

“Yeah,” she begins, counting and forgetting the ceiling tiles above her, “what are you doing today?”

“ _Whatever you’re about to suggest,_ ” he responds immediately, “ _except for going to school. It’s the weekend, Nicco, take a day off-_ ”

“I’m not going to school, and I can’t believe you just agreed to do anything but that. What if I asked you to jump into a volcano with me?” 

There’s something unbelievable about this boy, the way he seems to allow her to blindly guide him through the dark. Nicco feels dizzy. _Stupid boy_ , she thinks breathlessly, _stupid, brave, lovely boy._

“ _Well, it would be a good time to see if I can lava-bend, right?_ ” Heath jokes and Nicco is pulled back to reality. _He will be the death of me_ , she thinks as she shakes her head fondly.

“You’re impossible, I’m hanging up-”

He laughs, all-consuming and holy. “ _No-no-no, don’t. I wasn’t kidding earlier though. I’m up for whatever you called me for_.”

“Come over,” she says without thinking. A pause on the other end of the line, before: “ _Yeah?_ ”

“Yeah,” Nicco breathes, as though it’s the easiest thing in the world. And it is.

“... _This isn’t Kayla impersonating Nicco, is it? Because if so, even though I’ll have to reject the invite,_ wow, _brilliant acting skills-_ ”

“I hate you,” she lies, but Nicco’s never been a good liar. “I’ll leave the door unlocked.”

(She’s not sure when she began to like him this much, just knows that she can’t withhold her smile when he lays down next to her on the chilling tiles, his presence pacifying and disarming all at once.)

**V.**

They’re sitting next to each other on the bus, and Nicco is gazing out the window. Heath openly admires the glow of the setting sun caressing the girl’s skin. He marvels at the way that despite flames coming naturally to him, Nicco looks golden enough to set the world alight. She turns to him and he blinks, flustered. He wonders if he can pass his blush off as the sun taking notice of him.

“You’re blushing,” she observes with a smile. _Guess not,_ he thinks. It takes him a lot more strength than it should to tear his eyes away from her lips.

“I’m not,” he lies. Nicco raises an eyebrow in that way that infuriates him. 

She doesn’t call him out on his obvious deceit, too tired from the day they had had. Instead, she curls up in the seat and stares at him lazily. “As much as I like not having to skip as much school, did the Nemetoads really have to steal my whole Saturday?”

Heath huffs a laugh and silently agrees with her. The group of teens had departed from their small town when dawn was still breaking, and now they were returning when dusk was welcoming them back. They were all tired; Jesse had fallen asleep as soon as he had found an empty seat, and Luke was dozing next to Ben, who blinked lethargically at the book he was reading. But it was a bone-deep sort of exhaustion, their victory against their opponents keeping them warm and wrung-out. When they had all slowly dragged themselves onto the bus, Nicco had automatically made room for the Buckland boy to sit next to her. The rest of their group of misfits scattered around them; Luke and Ben across with Jesse in front.

Heath looks to Nicco again from where he had been observing their friends, because how could he not? “You’re tired, get some rest.”

Nicco yawns to prove his point but doesn’t give in easily. “I’m fine. Besides, we’re nearly home anyway, and I don’t want someone to have to drag me the rest of the way.”

 _I’ll carry you anywhere if I have to_ , Heath wants to say. _I’ll carry any of you to the end of the world_. Instead: “I’d rather drag you than have to deal with Grumpy Nicco,” he teases softly.

She rolls her eyes and he sees the way they begin to droop. Her body relaxes. “Maybe you’re right…” 

Heath grins something lovely and hopes he isn’t imagining it when he spies the pink dusting her cheeks. 

“I’m always right.”

“Whatever, flame-boy. Doesn’t mean I like you…” she mumbles out. He chooses to ignore her lie as she did his. Everything is quiet as she drifts away from consciousness before she drops her head onto Heath’s shoulder. He tenses, surprised at the action. Thankfully, Nicco’s too far gone to acknowledge it. Her presence solid against him makes him drowsy with something that feels like want. He brushes it off as tiredness. 

He looks at her again, her wild mass of curls tickling his neck and the way the glow of the setting sun paints her edges. He smiles a private smile, one that’s only seen when he looks at someone he loves.

Heath’s own energy starts to simmer and he doesn’t fight the sleep that hugs his bones. Instead, he lets it act as a blanket, and leans his head as softly as he can against Nicco’s. She doesn’t startle, instead merely burrows closer to him. 

The rest of the ride is quiet and filled with an emotion that resembles home. Ben soon delves into rest, his body naturally coming to a stop leaning against Luke, and Jesse is the one to awake from his slumber first. He grins at both his pairs of friends relaxed into each other, and snags multitudes of photos. The boy smiles at the group, their warmth making him dizzy with affection. 

It’s Heath that wakes next, shifting as the bus comes to a standstill. He opens his eyes and stares at Jesse who stares back. Nothing is said, and as the driver calls for them to exit off, Jesse goes to awake the other boys, while Heath rouses Nicco.

The girl groans and Heath shivers from where her lips lightly brush his exposed neck. “Nicco, wakey-wakey…”

“No eggs and bacon?” she grumbles out, beginning to slowly come back to life. She stills when she notices her position, her eyes keeping his gaze with a half-lidded stare. The air between them feels thick and alive with static, neither wanting to be the one to make the first move. As it stands, neither of them do. The rest of their group of rag-tags begin to file out of the bus, their limbs shaky with unuse. Heath takes that as his cue to get up and is both grateful and disappointed when he realises that Nicco's already untangled herself from him.

He ignores his feelings with a smile that makes the girl in front of him melt. “Come on, unless you wanna be left behind…?”

Nicco shakes her head with a huff that sounds suspiciously like a laugh and copies his actions. They walk out together, taking their places next to each other as though they had always been as such. Heath eyes Jesse’s knowing smirk and narrows his eyes at the water element. By then, the sun was in its final act, and their appreciations of triumphs would wait until morning. They bid their goodbyes and departed each other with the setting star smiling behind them. 

(That night, Heath would fall asleep with his internal flames igniting as more soothing than burning, and Nicco would drift off feeling as though the sun had decided to replace the moon.)

**\+ VI.**

They were graduating, and about to be late to the ceremony. Quinn had let Jesse commandeer the car, and in doing so he had decided to carpool their band of misfits to their graduation ceremony. Heath was the last to be picked up, and the second-longest to take getting ready (the Banda boy coming in first). As Jesse’s car screeched to a stop, Nicco easily took the role in getting Heath, surprisingly barely stumbling in her heels (Kayla and Jesse had forced her to practice for weeks, providing thorough entertainment for them and the boys). A wide smile graced her face, her dress flowing in the evening summer breeze. 

She makes her way to her boyfriend’s room, seeing him glaring at himself in the mirror, his hands fumbling with a tie. Nicco leans against the doorway and lets herself admire him for a moment, the presence of their friends escaping her for a minute. Then Heath must’ve spied her in his reflection, as he jumps and spins around so fast Nicco worries he might fall. The fire element gapes at her, and even after all the years they had spent together, first as near strangers, then friends and then lovers, he still looks at her with increasing amounts of awe. It made Nicco’s heart leap. She surveys his figure, grinning in appreciation and wanders closer to him.

“Well, don’t you look handsome, Buckland,” she teases, affection getting tangled in her words. The boy in question ducks his head bashfully for a moment, then lifts his head back up to stare at her some more. He doesn’t look at anything but her.

“Wish I could say the same, Pandellis,” he jests. Nicco rolls her eyes and knocks into his shoulder, sending him swaying. He still doesn’t look away. She eyes his fingers that had begun to cease their fumblings with his tie and gently uncurls them. Nicco moves closer and lets her own fingers make work of the fabric. Heath watches her closely, and she wonders if he even realises that he’s smiling down at her. After a few seconds of silence and Nicco hoping he can’t feel the shakiness of her hands, she pats his chest in a satisfied manner. The tie hugs his neck snugly and she thinks it’s the first time she’s ever seen him in a suit.

“There. All done,” she whispers because any louder and there’s a high chance her voice will crack. Heath grabs her hands and faces the mirror, Nicco’s head coming to a natural rest on his shoulder as they peer at one another in the glass.

“You look heavenly,” he tells her with soft eyes. “Angels should be afraid.”

It’s Nicco’s turn to flush, but she finds that she doesn’t particularly mind as it makes Heath’s smile widen. She leans up to kiss his cheek, turning him to face her once more in the process. His hands find familiar perches on her hips as hers trace his jaw.

“I have a secret to tell you,” she admits. Heath’s eyebrow raises in amusement.

“Not much of a secret if you tell me,” the boy taunts, “but please, go on.”

Nicco grins and leans into him, their foreheads coming to a rest against each other.

“I like you,” she whispers against his lips, “I like you so much I think I might love you.”

He, of course, knows this. They’d whispered their affections to each other in the nights’ end and the day’s wake. 

Still, after all the times she had denied her feelings, it feels like coming home to admit her loving muses. 

“Woah,” he says in response, wide-eyed and smiling, his lips matching Nicco’s. “You _like_ me?”

Nicco rolls her eyes at his teasing. Still, she plays along, nodding against him.

“Well, that’s nice of you, considering...” He trails off and kisses her once, twice, before Nicco can form a coherent sentence.

“Considering...?” she breathes, giddy with his presence.

“Considering I like you too.”

Then she kisses him, once, twice, thrice, before they’re distracted by a rampage of footsteps nearing them.

“I can’t believe you guys are going to make us late to our own gradua-” Jesse cuts himself short, finally looking at the pair of teens. His expression resembles exhausted amusement. “Ah, did I interrupt something?”

“As usual,” Nicco quips. She moves toward her best friend and glances back at the boy she loves. “Come on, last time you’ll ever have to see Mr Bates again.”

Heath laughs, nervous and bright, and follows her and Jesse to the car. The stars glitter down on them, the birds singing their prayers, and they drive off toward the place the universe had settled in.

(In a few hours, they’re all huddled up back in the same car, drunk with happiness, arms naturally encircling one another. They drive off once again, and they don’t look back.)


End file.
